Backup care is a perk that helps workers, employers

Program cuts absenteeism, eases burden for parents

June 21, 2008 - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - by Joel Dresang

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School is out, but work goes on. That’s why workers such as Renee Prink value backup child care.

With two school-age daughters, Prink and her husband, Jim, occasionally are in a pinch when a child care arrangement falls through.

The situation is dicier because one of their daughters, Kayla, who's 14, has a tangle of disabilities, including a bad spleen. That means she's more vulnerable to illnesses that require her to be sent home from school.

"We don't have any family members that live nearby that we can rely on. It's just my husband and I doing everything, and if something like that comes up, then it's just our tough luck," said Prink, a senior public relations specialist at Children's Hospital and Health System in Wauwatosa. 

With 4,600 employees in Wisconsin and northern Illinois, Children's has nonstop operations that often demand flexibility from its workers. But because many of those workers tend to be caregivers themselves at home - 87% are female, and their average age is 43 - Children's offers the flexibility of backup care benefits. 

Through Work Options Group, a business based near Denver, Children's subsidizes last-minute care arrangements for employees' children and adult dependents. Work Options Group uses a network of selected local providers to deliver care on short notice. Employees' make co-payments of $2 an hour for center-based child care and $4 an hour for in-home care (for up to three dependents) through payroll deduction. 

Unscheduled absences can put a strain on employers. And employees who miss work a lot because of family emergencies often feel the pressure. 

"When you have a disabled child, a child that's more susceptible to illness, that's always in the back of your mind. 'Geez, what if she comes down with this or that, and I'm going to get fired if I don't come in to work?' " Prink said. "You've got these worries all the time, and they're always in the back of your mind, not only about your child's health but how it's going to impact your employment. It's a big stress. And at least Children's provides this benefit. It really takes a lot of the worry away."

Safety net

Since enrolling in the Work Options Group in September 2005, Children's figures it has saved more than $220,000 in costs associated with absenteeism. 

"This really seems like a benefit that could meet the needs of our work force," said Staci Benz, benefits manager at Children's.  

"We think that if we care for our employees, it really impacts the care that's then provided to our patients and families and clients that we're working with," Benz said.  

Like Children's, more employers are recognizing employees' need for backup care. 

"It gives them a safety net," said Tonya Tougas, compensation and benefits administrator for Quarles & Brady, "one more option to turn to if their regular care falls through."

The law firm began offering backup care for its 1,000 employees nationwide in January through Work Options Group after considering setting up its own fallback care center at its Milwaukee headquarters. 

"When we're concerned about our loved ones, we're not focusing on our jobs. And I think most people understand that we're all like that," said Marilyn Lagerman, chief human resources officer for Milwaukee-based Foley & Lardner, also a Work Options Group client, which has more than 2,500 employees in 22 law offices worldwide. "So we really respect people's commitments and concern for their families and their loved ones, and we think backup care is a way that we can demonstrate this to the firm - that we care about them not only as employees but we care about them as individuals." 

Some 14% of human resource professionals said their organizations offered backup childcare benefits in a 2006 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. That was up from 5% in a 2005 survey, and 74% of the HR managers without backup benefits said they were interested in adding them. 

"I think employers are having to be more flexible," said Holly Davis, executive director of Next Generation Now, a community-based child development center in Racine. 

More than once, Davis said, she has had to intervene with an employer to try to prevent a parent from being fired for taking home a child too sick to stay in child care.  

"We understand that the situation is dire a lot of times, and we don't want to put the parent in that situation. So we'll try our hardest to accommodate," Davis said. Sometimes, that means setting up a cot in an unoccupied office to isolate a sick child until a parent can come.  

As an employer of working parents, Davis said she appreciates the difficulty of being short-handed when employees don't have backup care. 

"Even for our employees, when their kids get sick at school or whatever and they have to leave, we really have stress," Davis said. 

Work Options Group said it is arranging temporary care for employees at 140 companies nationwide, up from 100 a year ago.  

"We're seeing more and more employers looking at offering it," said Heather Hope, public relations manager for Work Options Group.  

"Even though there's an economic downturn, you have a strong business case for offering it and for enhancing productivity by offering it," Hope said. 

Benz said Children's employees used 2,477 hours of backup care last year, up 14.5% from 2006. With school out and the fluctuation of children's schedules and arrangements, she expects the need for sudden temporary care to grow. 

"We definitely see a big spike in June," Benz said.  

Home, work balance

Kathy Manthe, a patient-access representative for Children's, cares for her mother, Martha, 87, who has been living with Manthe for 12 years - the last four with Alzheimer's disease. 

"I have to make sure I have coverage for Mother. I cannot leave her alone," Manthe said.

Manthe has adult day care arrangements during her 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. shift. But if she's needed to cover an extra shift, Manthe can rely on backup care. 

"I would send an e-mail out. They would reply by phone within the hour and find somebody for me," Manthe said.  

Both she and her mother have been impressed by the quality of caregivers, some of whom had special training in Alzheimer's care, Manthe said. She has needed backup care about a dozen times so far. 

"I can give my time to Children's, and I'm at rest because my mother's not alone," Manthe said. 

Likewise, Prink said she's more focused on her work and less worried about Kayla, and her younger daughter, Jamie, who turns 8 today.  

"It helps me balance my work and family obligations and it makes me more productive," Prink said. "I don't have to delay my projects because I'm out with a sick kid. It makes me feel better about working and coming to work." 

By The Numbers

14% - Percentage of companies that offered backup child care benefits in 2006

5% - Percentage in 2005

74% - Percentage of human resources departments interested in adding backup benefits

Source: Society for Human Resource Management